The Bella Twins Reveal They Gave WWE Ultimatum Before Debut

The Bella Twins, Nikki & Brie, recently joined former WWE Creative Writer, Freddie Prinze Jr. on his podcast Wrestling with Freddie. The pair dropped by to discuss their run in WWE during Prinze Jr.'s time with the company.

Freddie was initially involved with attempting to get The Bella Twins called up from FCW, but his ideas were constantly pushed back. Eventually, Nikki & Brie took matters into their own hands and gave the company an ultimatum.

"You know, it's interesting because we actually do give you [Freddie Prinze Jr.] a lot of credit because when we were down at FCW for so long, they were like 'we just don't know what do with twins,'" Brie Bella said. "We were kind of like, it seems like it writes itself, a natural gimmick, but it was your ideas that you kept pushing, that I think it made the company, a lot of people at the time see like, 'OK, there is something special.' The greatest thing is there were no social media, so we could really hide the fact, that like, and FCW didn't have television at the time, so nobody knew Nicole and me, at all.

"They kept saying they had no idea. I had, at the time, a boyfriend who was like 'you gave up everything for wrestling' like, at what time do you start giving back to the people who were there with you. 'You never see your family, I'm here alone all the time' and all that. I was like that's a really good point so I was the one who pushed it. I was like 'listen, let us know. If you honestly don't think, you told us at the Diva Search you weren't looking for two. We begged to then try out again. We drove here, we're getting paid peanuts, be honest if you have no idea what to do with twins, we can go somewhere else.' I think that did it."

The Bella Twins, of course, went on to become two of the biggest stars in WWE. Nikki & Brie had praise for Freddie Prinze Jr. for his work behind the scenes during their initial call-up.

"I loved when you [Freddie Prinze Jr.] were there when we first came up and you were writing," Nikki Bella stated. "One thing I loved that you did, and I miss so much of WWE is, is that you actually saw the pre-tapes. There would be a story in the pre-tape, but you would see the most random people together, WWE Superstars. Maybe some people running in the background going to another pre-tape that's going to happen later, and it was just like yeah.

"I just remember, that period of time when you were there, more Superstars were actually watching the show because it was so entertaining. I even remember the fans being so entertained because that, like, that's why reality shows are so big because everyone gets to see the behind the scenes and I feel that's the one thing I miss so much. I'm like, pre-tapes don't really give us that. I see the same people together all the time, like, I want to see this person and this person together that I've never seen before and then I want to see this chaos in the back because wow, I'm really looking backstage."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Wrestling with Freddie with an h/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.